Six-car wreck at I-75/64 split leaves two critically injured

Two people were critically injured in a six-car wreck just before noon Saturday at the I-75/64 split in Fayette County.

Lexington police Sgt. Scott Perrine said the pileup began when one vehicle suddenly slowed down to try to get into the correct lane to exit from northbound Interstate 75 onto eastbound Interstate 64. The vehicle behind it swerved but could not avoid a collision, Perrine said.

He said three other cars then collided with the first two. None of the occupants of the five vehicles was injured, and they got out to assess the damage.

Perrine said that when they got back into their vehicles, the driver of the fifth vehicle, a Buick passenger car, did not buckle his seat belt. As those involved in the crash sat waiting for emergency crews, a sixth vehicle rear-ended the Buick at high speed.

Perrine said the driver of the Buick hit his head on the windshield. His condition was life-threatening, Perrine said.

The man driving the sixth vehicle was pinned inside and “had severe broken legs,” Perrine said.

Sgt. Keith Miller said soon after the collision that he thought it likely that the cars were going “too fast, probably, and too close together.”

One of the police department’s off-duty units was first on the scene of the accident, which happened at 11:40 a.m., Miller said.

One person sustained minor injuries, Miller said. The three injured people, all adults, were taken to the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital.

Two lanes of the interstate were closed after the accident and reopened just after 5 p.m, Perrine said.

This story was originally published May 7, 2016 at 2:24 PM with the headline "Six-car wreck at I-75/64 split leaves two critically injured."